More costly to get around

Corbett has choice of ways to raise money for transportation.

August 01, 2011|By Sari Heidenreich, Special to The Morning Call

HARRISBURG — The price of registering your car and renewing your license would double — but drivers would only have to do that half as often — if Gov. Tom Corbett chooses to get behind the recommendations handed to him by a special transportation funding task force.

The cost of a ticket would jump $50 and drivers with more than one moving violation a year would get hit with a $100 surcharge.

And gas could jump 22 cents a gallon if a wholesale tax is uncapped.

Those options, included in a report by the administration's Transportation Funding Advisory Commission, are aimed at closing a $3.5 billion funding gap and coming up with long-term ways to pay for road, bridge and infrastructure repairs. The panel has been at work since April. Its findings were made public on Monday.

The report sets forth $2.7 billion in policy-changing recommendations, among them extending the life of drivers' licenses from the current four years to eight years and extending registrations from one year to two years.

The report also calls for reducing the number of driver's license centers from 71 to 60 and having them open only on weekdays.

If all of the commission's recommendations are implemented, it would cost the average driver — someone who owns one car with average fuel economy, drives 12,000 miles per year and doesn't get tickets — an extra $132 a year by the fifth year.

The commission's recommendations, which would cost drivers $36 the first year and roughly $23 in subsequent years during a five-year rollout period, are not binding, but would become law if backed by Corbett and state lawmakers.

Administration spokeswoman Kelli Roberts said the governor is reviewing the report and would issue a statement only after reading it. She couldn't say when that would happen.

Also among the commission's recommendations: a suggestion that documents, such as vehicle titles, inspections, driver's licenses, and others documents be adjusted for inflation, raising $412 million for the state in the first year and $574 by the fifth year. The cost of a passenger vehicle registration would cost an extra $13, and a four-year driver's license fee an extra $4.

The wholesale gasoline tax, which was capped at $1.25 per gallon in 1993, would be increased to around $2.70. The commission estimates this would increase gas prices by about 22 cents per gallon this year, raising $1.4 billion.

The commission also recommended the statewide use of red-light cameras. They say the cameras would encourage responsible driving and ease the burden on local police.

For an improved transportation infrastructure, the cost of these recommendations to consumers is a modest price to pay, said Stephen Herzenberg, an economist with the Keystone Research Center.

"If you want to benefit from the technology, if you want to have an adequate infrastructure, you've gotta pay for it," Herzenberg said.

But Nathan Benefield, spokesman for the right-leaning think tank the Commonwealth Foundation, said the state needs to prioritize how it spends its transportation dollars before undertaking new spending.

"There's a constant refrain for more money, more money without looking at the reform side for transportation dollars," he said.

Sari Heidenreich is a summer intern for the Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents Association.

Menu of options

Gov. Tom Corbett will choose among these options to find money for the state's road, bridge and transit needs:

Gas prices would jump about 22 cents this year as the wholesale gasoline tax, capped at $1.25 per gallon in 1993, increases over time to about $2.70.

Red-light cameras (currently legal only in Philadelphia) would be put up across the state to improve driver behavior and ease the burden on local police.

Vehicles would be registered every other year, not annually. Driver's licenses would be valid for eight years, not four. The fees for both would be doubled then rise with inflation.

The cost of a speeding ticket would increase $50, and a $100 surcharge would be levied on drivers with more than one moving violation a year.